Hello
am the owner of a 98 a4 1.8t and have been taking the car to the dealer at every servide due and always been very happy until now

took my car for a 25k service and they told me i could wait for it while they do the service so i did
they gave me the car back in less than half an hour and i left very happy because they did it so fast

next morning i was late for work and traffic was very heavy so i cut thru some streets that am never traveled before and didn,t pay attencion there was a dip in an interception and i couldn,t stop on time
so i bottom my car (ouch) nothing major but my engine cover was dragging
i pull it off anyway i could and put it in the trunk (rear seats fold down in case you wonder how)
i went to an independent shop down the street and ask them to reinstalled for me (i was late anyway)
they lift the car in the hoist and start working to straighten the holder for the cover
the guy working under the car call his manager to see under the car
the manager came and tell me that my water pump was leaking, had oil leaks in the engine and transmission area and one axle boot was broken
I though they wanted to sell me something so i told them the car is under warranty and i just had it at the dealer the day before
they laugh and ask me to look myself
so i went and look guess what?
they were right
they told me some of the oil was residue from the oil filter but the valve cover gasket was leaking the rear transmission seal right outer axle boot in the front ws broken and lots of grease splash on my wheel and the water pump had lots of pink stuff coming out of it
I ask them if it had to do with bottoming the car and they told me all of this problems been there for a while
I call the dealer and ask them about it in a very angry manner
the service manager told that they notice all those things the day before and even before that
but they couldn,t fix any of those problems
i ask why?
They told that for them to fix anything it had to be safety related and ready to break or i had to complaint about it when i bring the car for service
how many people ever check under their cars?
that,s the reason you buy a car with warrnaty
anyway by now my day ws wasted in a way and very rewarding in another
i didn,t go to work tip the guy at the shop 100 dollars he was so happy i told him to get lunch for his guys and thank him for all the information
and i left straight to the dealer
i got there really angry and sak for the manager
when i told him all this he told me he was not allow to make the decisions for any work unless it was safety
the rest is even worst when i have to call audi myself they think there is no other car but audi out there
to all the guys who read this take your car to an independent shop for an inspection whenever possible you,ll be surprise of the things wrong in your car and never been fix at the dealer
good luck

At any rate, getting your car checked out, by an independent and in your presence, before warranty runs out is a pretty good idea ON ANY CAR. If this is for real, sorry to hear about that.

Nice grammuh by the way.

RJ

When my water pump was leaking (car had about 5k miles) I had
to tell the service manager that it was leaking even though
the mechanic actually came to tell me. He wrote "customer
states water pump is leaking" then he ordered a new one and
I came back a week later to have it replaced.

Something about they can't suggest work... seems extreme in
this case but one thing I "learned" from this was to walk out
and talk to the tech who had most recently touched my car
to make sure I was up to date (who can see a leaky valve cover
thru all that plastic)

If all you say is 100% true you need to be raising some serious hell with your dealership. I suspect Audi is PR concious in light of all the bad press they received over the 5000 accleration scam. If the issues you outline in your post are true I would suggest you give your dealer one shot at getting them sorted out. If they screw you over call the news assignment desk at one of your local TV stations and try to get an action type reporter interested in your delima. Be prepared with documentation and facts and you will be surprised at how quick the dealer snaps to attention. How do I know? I work with TV news types every day and they love these types of gotcha stories.

The anonymous posting -- with a phony email address no less -- leads me to conclude that the whole story is a sham.

Rick

Actually he is correct. Audi does not allow the dealer to fix anything more than the customer brought the car in for unless it is safety related. If the dealer does when Audi does a warranty Audit they charge back the dealer. What can I say.
Ask your local service manager if this is true. Sometimes dealers chance it but getting a huge $100K charge back not only ruins your day and year but probably will cost the service manager his or her job